Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

We had to put our wheelie bags out for pickup at 6am. Since we don’t depart for the helipad until 9:15, we went back to bed for another hour of sleep. Got to watch the monkeys outside our room this morning having their leafy breakfast. Lots of little babies with Momma’s today. This is the end of the tourist season in Sri Lanka as the rains will be coming in shortly. After breakfast, we transferred to the helicopter pad for our 50 minute flight to Columbo. We departed from a sports field next to the hotel with Lou and Dena. Jim sat in the co-pilot seat and he was a happy camper. We went through a bit of a rain downpour just as we approached the landing, but it was dry on the ground when we sat down. The helicopter ride was awesome! Upon landing, we had to transfer a short distance from the domestic to the International terminal and board our private jet for the flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had lunch on board the jet today.  I’ve been patted down (and they pat everywhere!) so much in the airports in Columbo, I feel like I should file harassment charges! We had a couple of lectures on board today: Greg Anderson: Ancient and Modern Linguistic Migrations in the Peopling of Africa & the Middle East Bob Krist: Behind the Scenes-Real Life Misadventures of a National Geographic Photographer Just checked our moving map on the plane. Our flight path today takes us over the Arabian Sea and Somalia. That’s as close as I ever want to be to that country. I think of Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips whenever I hear the word Somalia. Landed in Ethiopia at 3:30pm. We jump back 2.5 hours in this time zone. Thankfully, that works in our favor. (Flight time 6 hours, 20 minutes) Ethiopia and Jerusalem are notorious for their lengthy passport and immigration screening process. We were dreading it, but there were no crowds so it was just a moderately slow process. The temperature is a delightful 72 and breezy as we exit the airport. With one of the highest poverty levels in the world, Ethiopia is considered by many to be one of the most under-developed nations in the world. It is a nation that has been beset by hunger and poverty for most of its long history. It has a burgeoning population and it is predicted that the population could reach as high as 210 million by 2060 if current growth rate trends continue. Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the continent of Africa. It is home to diverse religions, distinct tribal cultures, evidence of some of the earliest humans, and an array of archaeological treasures. We’ll be visiting many of those sites to tie in with our human journeys trip theme. MESFIN We are excited to be visiting Mesfin’s home country of Ethiopia. He is the adolescent that Jim performed a couple of valve surgeries on many years ago. He remained in the USA after being adopted by Allen and Shelley Dollar, the Cardiologist who arranged to have him brought to the states as a charity case for surgical evaluation. He is now married with a son of his own and is going to Perfusion school in Texas. It would be a wonderful “full circle of life” if he returned to Piedmont to be a perfusionist for Jim in the future. Ethiopia facts: The name Ethiopia derive from the Greek, ethio, meaning “burned” and pia meaning “face” so they are called the “burned face peoples” Population in Addidis Ababa, Capitol of Ethiopia, is 5 million Population in Ethiopia is 95 million Large Muslim population National language is Amharic United Nations for Africa is located here. We drove by it on the way to the museum. Addidis Ababa means “new flower” in the African language Upon landing in the capital city of Addis Ababa, we visited the National Museum of Ethiopia for a tour of Ethiopia’s artistic and cultural gems. The collection at the Museum is ranked among the most important in sub-Saharan Africa. Sadly the exhibits are poorly labeled and signage looks like it’s done on construction paper by a third grader. This is the home of Lucy who roamed the earth some 3.2 million years ago and was discovered in The Great Rift Valley. The fossilized hominid was discovered in 1974. She is perhaps the world’s most famous early human ancestor, though her remains are only about 40 percent complete. She is the star of the exhibit, though, with two remarkable casts. She lays prone in one cast and stands in the other. It shows how shockingly small our ancient ancestors were as the standing statue is only about 1.1 meters tall and weighed 69 pounds. That’s a petite female! The real bones are preserved in the archives of the museum. They also have on display, Selam, the child remains of a 3 year old dating back 3.3 million years ago, i.e. 150,000 years before Lucy. The 1st floor houses displays of Ethiopian art ranging from early 14th-century parchment to 20th-century canvas oil paintings by leading modern artists. Seems a little odd to see modern abstract art hanging immediately next to 14th century works. There is a large church next to the museum. Today is a religious holiday so there is a service being broadcast from atop the church. It was followed by Orthodox chanting mixed with Islamic calls to prayer echoing through the city. As we’re driving to the hotel, we pass by several wedding parties. Love seeing all the colorful wedding attire but sadly I couldn’t get a clear photo of any of them. We also passed the Grand Palace, but no photos are allowed there. Weird. We arrived at the hotel at 6pm. Once again, shocking amount of security in this country. We had bag checks at the museum, our bus was inspected before we got through the gates at the hotel and we had to go through bag and body screening to enter the hotel. Grabbed a quick dinner at the buffet tonight. Greg introduced us to Injera made from the grain Teff which is only grown in Ethiopia. It is a purplish-colored 5 inch long roll of spongy bread. You use it to pick up your food and eat it. It takes 3 days to ferment and make it. The taste was a bit like vinegary sour dough. Greg was using it to eat mashed chick peas, salad ingredients, kabobs, basically everything he put in his mouth except dessert! He is a hoot to dine with. Then we headed to bed. We have an early start day tomorrow. We are taking charter flights up to Lalibella for the day. Sheraton Addis (D) 1 US Dollar=20.50 Birr